Milk blebs

A milk bleb happens when the nipple pore gets blocked/clogged by a piece of skin or a small amount of hardened breast milk. It usually looks like a white dot on the nipple and the pain tends to be focused at that spot and just behind it. The clog might be a tiny, dry clump of hardened milk or a “string” of fattier, semi-solidified milk. 

Blebs are often caused by:

• Shallow latch
• Tongue tied baby
• Pumping with too large of a flange
• Often associated with recurrent mastitis

When the bleb is being caused by skin covering the nipple pore, the duct obstruction will often pop out from the pressure of nursing or manual expression. By changing baby’s position at the breast and focusing on a deep latch, breastfeeding alone will often pop the bleb.

Always figure out the root of why you have one and address that first. Other remedies:

• Keeping olive or coconut oil on the top to soften the bleb
• Hand expressing behind the bleb to move milk through
• Switch nursing positions
• Taking sunflower lecithin  
• Ice after feeding to reduce inflammation
• Epsom salt or saline soaks
• Triamcinolone 0.1% spot applied for 1-3 weeks under direction of an IBCLC
• If they do not resolve on their own in a few days, seeing a breast specialist for further work up and management

A milk bleb happens when the nipple pore gets blocked/clogged by a piece of skin or a small amount of hardened breast milk. It usually looks like a white dot on the nipple and the pain tends to be focused at that spot and just behind it. The clog might be a tiny, dry clump of hardened milk or a “string” of fattier, semi-solidified milk. 

Blebs are often caused by:

• Shallow latch
• Tongue tied baby
• Pumping with too large of a flange
• Often associated with recurrent mastitis

When the bleb is being caused by skin covering the nipple pore, the duct obstruction will often pop out from the pressure of nursing or manual expression. By changing baby’s position at the breast and focusing on a deep latch, breastfeeding alone will often pop the bleb.

Always figure out the root of why you have one and address that first. Other remedies:

• Keeping olive or coconut oil on the top to soften the bleb
• Hand expressing behind the bleb to move milk through
• Switch nursing positions
• Taking sunflower lecithin 
• Ice after feeding to reduce inflammation
• Epsom salt or saline soaks
• Triamcinolone 0.1% spot applied for 1-3 weeks under direction of an IBCLC
• If they do not resolve on their own in a few days, seeing a breast specialist for further work up and management

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